For Good
by SoTurnRight
Summary: After Final Jam, everything changed. Rather, everyone changed." Tess/Mitchie friendship. Slight Smitchie.


_...But I know I'm who I am today  
Because I knew you... _

The media says of all people to be friends, it shouldn't be us. Her mom and dad were completely confused. But she understands me. After Final Jam, everything changed. Rather, everyone changed.

People claim that Shane Gray changed in a summer. But truth be told, all of us changed, in one way or another. Shane wasn't a jerk anymore. Caitlyn learned to let people in. Nate learned that people were more important than work. Jason...well, Jason learned about making a birdhouse, I guess.

And me? I think I learned the most of any of us. I learned how to look outside myself, and see other people's pain too. I learned that friends don't come through intimidation. I learned how to dance in the rain, and how to jump into a pile of leaves. I learned how to laugh at 4 in the morning. I learned how to have a mud fight in a thunderstorm. I learned how to love, and how to live.

Mitchie changed all of us. All you had to do was look at her sparkling brown eyes and you would smile. She changed Shane, for sure. She changed Connect 3's sound (it turns out that Shane writes a pretty good love ballad).

We all thought that Mitchie was invincible. That maybe the laughter in her eyes could protect her from everything that could happen. Then her grandparents both died in a car crash. Her best friend Sierra was diagnosed with brain cancer and died within a year. Andrew, her childhood friend, moved across the country and stopped talking to her completely. Her Mom and Dad started fighting.

We all watched Mitchie try to take it all bravely. I never once saw her cry. Not when her parents told her they were considering divorce, not when she had to sing at her grandparent's funeral, not even when Caity was so sick that she had to be admitted to the hospital.

But, the sparkle was gone. Gone were the days of laughter. Gone were the days of jumping in the leaves, dancing in the rain, or singing at the top of our lungs in the car.

I took a deep breath. _This is it_, I thought. _I can do this. _

I ran out on stage and opened with my top single, Can't Look Back. Halfway through my concert, I looked out in the audience. I spotted Mitchie with Shane, and Nate, Caitlyn and Jason beside them. Mitchie was smiling, but it did little more than pull up the corners of her mouth.

_Just breathe. You can do this._ I smiled and grabbed my mic, sitting on a stool.

"Hey guys, I wanna slow things down for a few minutes. I wrote this song for a friend of mine. I met her a couple of years ago, and she's going through a lot. She taught me how to love, how to have fun, how to _live_."

"I've heard it said,  
That people come into our lives for a reason,  
Bringing something we must learn,  
And we are led,  
To those who help us most to grow,  
If we let them,  
And we help them in return,  
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true,  
But I know I'm who I am today,  
Because I knew you"

I stood up and poured everything I had into that one song. The audience was deadly still. Not one person made a sound. I saw Mitchie wipe a tear away, and Shane put an arm around her and whisper in her ear.

"Like a comet pulled from orbit,  
As it passes a sun,  
Like a stream that meets a boulder,  
Halfway through the wood,  
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?  
But because I knew you,  
I have been changed for good"

I smiled, remembering the long walks we'd taken together in the woods, splashing through streams and throwing leaves at one another.

"It well may be,  
That we will never meet again,  
In this lifetime,  
So let me say before we part,  
So much of me,  
Is made of what I learned from you,  
You'll be with me,  
Like a handprint on my heart,  
And now whatever way our stories end,  
I know you have rewritten mine,  
By being my friend."

The music picked up slightly, and the lights rose brightly_. Mitchie_, I thought desperately,_ come back and be yourself again._

"Like a ship blown from it's mooring,  
By a wind off the sea,  
Like a seed dropped by a skybird,  
In a distant wood,  
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?  
But because I knew you"

I closed my eyes, thanking God for the opportunity to change. I never wanted to be a jerk to anyone, but insecurity drove me to feel important to someone. Mitchie was the only one who ever truly understood how I felt.

"Because I knew you,  
I have been changed for good,  
And just to clear the air,  
I ask forgiveness,  
For the things I've done you blame me for"

I cost Mitchie winning her first Final Jam. I knew it.

"But then, I guess we know,  
There's blame to share,  
And none of it seems to matter anymore"

Mitchie lied. I intimidated people. Both of us were wrong, in different ways, for the same reasons.

"Like a comet pulled from orbit,  
As it passes a sun,  
Like a stream that meets a boulder,  
Halfway through the wood,  
Like a ship blown from it's mooring,  
By a wind off the sea,  
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood,

Who can say if I've been,  
Changed for the better?  
I do believe I have been,  
Changed for the better"

I _know_ I've been changed. And I know why. Mitchie found a way to be real, and in doing so, showed all of us the way to find ourselves.

"And because I knew you...  
Because I knew you...  
Because I knew you...  
I have been changed for good."

I looked out, but I couldn't see Mitchie. She was gone. The lights dimmed to a single spotlight and I took my bow and ran off stage. As soon as I got backstage, two arms engulfed me in a hug.

"Thank you." Mitchie whispered, crying. We both cried for a few minutes before pulling back, embarassed. We both wiped at our eyes, and Shane pulled Mitchie into his arms, murmuring words into her ear.

"Group hug!" We laughed, but all of us followed Jason into the hug. When I looked up, Jason smiled at me and tilted his head towards Mitchie. Confused, I followed his gaze.

Her eyes were sparkling again.

**A/N: Please review!**


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